Christianity in Roman Britain. By David Petts. Pp. 189 incl. 76 ills. Stroud–Charleston, SC: Tempus, 2003. £17.99 (paper). 0 7524 2540 4

• Published in: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History Vol. 55; no. 2; p. 351
• Main Author: FREND, W. H. C.
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.04.2004
• Subjects: Argumentation; Biographies; Centuries; Christianity; Evangelicalism; Greek language; Magic & magicians; Philosophers; Reading; Religion; Religious conversion; Reviews; Sermons; Subtitling; Theology; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0022-0469; 1469-7637
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022046904380772

The interest in such a presentation does not lie in what one might broadly term a historical reconstruction of these important characters, or a straightforward analysis of the purpose of the authors of Homilies and Recognitions, but in a description of the way in which the two works seek to communicate themselves through an essentially ctional construction, a movement in a sense from author to reader. While there is an essentially negative appraisal of this gure, made clear in particular in the depiction of Clements conversion to Christianity, in the presentation of Peter as unlettered in Greek paideia and in the presentation of Simon as learned in these matters, there is a willingness to allow Peter to make use of methods of argumentation associated with the philosopher. [...]in the presentation of Peter as a high-minded ascetic, there are clear parallels with the gure of Pythagoras and his followers whose reputation was experiencing a revival in the second and third centuries. [...]Ct is still keen to 332 JOURNALOFECCLESIASTICALHISTORY attribute some intention to the authors, even if these intentions lack the specicity of some previous studies. 960 7298 96 9JEH (55) 2004; DOI: 10.1017/S0022046904220772 The Orthodox Metropolitan of Phokis ostensibly oers here a comparative study of anthropology in Plato and St Paul, although its thirty pages on pre-Socratic preliminaries and fty on Plato are concerned more specically with the view of the soul and the question of its immortality (the subtitles psychological concerns the view of the wtvgA), while leaving other aspects of anthropology unexplored.